USDC

USDC (USD Coin) is a US-dollar stablecoin issued by Circle, a US-regulated financial company. Each USDC is designed to be redeemable for one US dollar, backed by reserves held roughly one-to-one in cash and short-term US Treasuries. It is one of the most widely used stablecoins and a common settlement currency for tokenized real-world assets.

What distinguishes USDC is its emphasis on transparency and regulation. Circle holds the reserves at regulated institutions, publishes monthly attestations of what backs the tokens in circulation, and operates under US money-transmission licensing. This is a form of proof of reserves that lets holders check the backing rather than take it on faith.

USDC exists as an ERC-20 token on Ethereum and natively on several other networks, including Base, Coinbase's layer 2. That multi-chain presence means you can hold and move the same dollar token wherever a given RWA product runs, and Circle operates mint and redeem rails for approved partners to move between dollars and USDC.

In RWA deals, USDC is often the money leg. You buy a tokenized share by paying USDC into the issuance contract, and distributions - interest, rent, loan repayments - may be paid back to you in USDC. Because both the asset token and the payment settle on-chain, a deal can close in minutes rather than waiting on bank wires.

USDC is not risk-free. Its value depends on Circle honoring redemptions and on the reserves being sound; in March 2023 it briefly fell below a dollar when some reserves sat at a failing bank, then recovered once the deposits were secured. The sensible checks are who issues it, what backs it, and whether you can redeem.

Source: Circle (circle.com), as of 2026.